What are the surgical options for people with epilepsy?
For most people with epilepsy, their seizures are well controlled by antiepileptic drugs. But for those with intractable epilepsy, surgery may be an option. The surgery is specific to the type of epilepsy the patient has. Temporal and extratemporal cortical resection removes the brain tissue containing the epileptic focus. The Center uses Functional Image-Guided Surgery to create a precise “road map” of the brain and enables the neurosurgeon to avoid healthy tissue. Two other procedures-corpus callosotomy, which severs the neural connections between the brain’s two hemispheres, and hemispherectomy, where one half of the brain is removed-are performed primarily on children with severe epilepsy.
